Dutchman who saved Jewish child returns medal to protest Gaza deaths

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (JTA) — A Dutch man who risked his life to save a Jewish child during the Holocaust gave back a medal he received for his actions in order to protest Israel’s actions in Gaza.

Henk Zanoli, 91, returned his medal to the Israeli Embassy in The Hague after a member of his family died in an Israeli strike in Gaza, the Haaretz daily reported Friday.

Zanoli and his mother were recognized by the State of Israel and its Holocaust commemoration authority, Yad Vashem, in 2011 for hiding a Jewish child in their home from 1943 to 1945.

A great-niece of Zanoli is a Dutch diplomat whose husband was born in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. Last month, an Israeli bomb killed several members of his family, Haaretz reported.

“It is particularly shocking and tragic that today, four generations on, our family is faced with the murder of our kin in Gaza. Murder carried out by the State of Israel,” Zanoli wrote in a letter to the embassy explaining his decision to return the medal. “For me to hold on to the honour granted by the State of Israel, under these circumstances, will be both an insult to the memory of my courageous mother who risked her life,” and to relatives in mourning in Gaza, he added.

What are you talking about? Netenyahu is all gun ho about going after the Palestinians and there are videos showing Israelis sitting in chairs at the edge of the Gaza Strip cheering as Israel drops bombs in Gaza... And yes it WAS started by them, they forcibly took over Palestinian land and brazenly continue to do so. Read what the alternative media has to say about all this, they unlike the mainstream media, are actually looking into what is happening on the Palestinian side. All you hear from the mainstream media is what Israel says, not all sides of the issue.

There is nothing I can say that would make you understand the reality of the conflict because your mind is made up. Nothing in real life is black and white, only grey. To understand any conflict you have to impartially study the facts in the context of cause and effect.